Above: Watch the 8-minute showdown between two cottonmouth snakesWalking up on two big cottonmouths fighting in a creek would cause many people to walk away. For Statesboro’s Matthew Moore, however, the recent encounter in a Bulloch County swamp offered the welcomed chance to watch and video the male-on-male combat of these iconic snakes, according to an account provided by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.Moore said that while most snakes mate in spring, the prime time for cottonmouths and other pit vipers is late summer through early fall. That’s when males vying for females tangle in dance-like tussles, intertwining, rising up to gain advantage and trying repeatedly to push the other snake down.TRENDING STORIES:Georgia youth pastor charged after allegations of child molestation Police arrest woman witnesses say threw injured puppy into the ocean on Tybee Island“It’s basically a wrestling match for the rights to mate with a local female,” Moore explained. The venomous snakes don’t bite each other, he added, and losers escape humbled but unhurt.Moore, a DNR wildlife technician who has a way with water moccasins, has seen three such fights. One lasted less than 60 seconds, the other almost 30 minutes. The latest paired cottonmouths each measuring about 3 1/2 feet long and included at least three rounds.In the above video, the winner of a skirmish just downstream finds the second cottonmouth resting near a cypress tree, which is also where Moore is hiding. The moccasins grapple again. The outcome is the same. The dominant male chases the slightly smaller snake away, then seems to lay claim to the creekbank cypress.Moore suspects a female moccasin was hiding in the roots and tunnels beneath his feet. “I went back the next day and saw the same male laying at the same spot.”See more of Matthew Moore’s cottonmouth videos.